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The first baseball game Michael Claiborne ever took his son to
see was the Yankees and Rangers.

Preston Claiborne still remembers the lesson.

"He told me to watch what the Yankees did," he said. "He told me
to go about my business like they did, with class and respect."

Growing up, Preston did as his father instructed. Drafted out of
Carrollton Newman Smith in the 23rd round in 2006, he turned down
the offer and went to Tulane. And there his lesson continued.

The Green Wave made him a relief pitcher. His freshman year, he
was second on the team in appearances. He was working his way back
from elbow surgery his sophomore year when one of his coaches told
him after a game against UC-Irvine that he needed to call home.

Paula Claiborne told her son the unthinkable: His father had
died of a stroke.

Overcome with grief, with nowhere else to go, Preston turned to
his team. He remained with them the rest of the weekend.

On Sunday, less than 48 hours later, Preston's coach, Rick
Jones, looked down the bench as usual. But he knew this time it
might be different. Might be too much to ask.

"No, coach, this is what I want to do," Preston told him. "I
want to be in there."

In his longest outing of the season, Preston pitched the final 2
1/3 innings, striking out three and allowing only a pair of
singles.

Tulane lost the game. But not the moral.

"It doesn't always work out the way you draw it up," Jones told
reporters afterward, "but I sure was proud of his effort.

"I'm sure his dad was, too."

Michael, a stockbroker, had not been a regular at Tulane games.
He's seen his son pitch in college only once. But they'd always
been close. On Saturdays, they'd eat breakfast at a favorite
restaurant. Sundays they spent in the shade of an oak, talking
baseball and other subjects great and small.

Looking back, the conversations are Preston's fondest memories.
But life moves on. He graduated last month with a degree in media
arts and is only a semester short of another in history.

And the first week of this month he was drafted in the 17th
round ... by the Yankees.

He reported last week to Staten Island, N.Y. for short season.
This will be his second Father's Day since his father's death. It
will be difficult, as is every day, maybe for a long time to
come.

But if called on to pitch, he'll be ready.

"You've gotta keep your emotions in check," he said. "I can't
worry if a guy makes an error or I give up a bomb.

"I can only think about the next pitch."

Go about your business with class and respect. That was the
lesson.

And here's another: Preston doesn't regret what his father might
have missed. He figures he doesn't miss a game. À LA
CARTE

■ Hey, Roger Goodell: Good luck getting players to
agree to an 18-game regular season. Cutting the pre-season from
four games to two? Good riddance. But by adding two games that
count, when starters are actually playing, the odds of injury go
up. Yes, the NFL has done it before. But players have more power
now.

■ When the University of Waterloo banned football for
a year after nine players tested positive for steroids, the AD
summoned an expert to explain the gravity of the situation: Plano's
Don Hooton.

■ Memo to everyone campaigning for inclusion in the
Little Big 12: Not happening. The perk of downsizing is that
there's more money to go around.

■ Biggest winner in the shakeup: Unless you count
teams that would have been out of a league, it's Texas A&M. The
Aggies get the same split as Texas and Oklahoma without a fraction
of the results in football. Biggest loser: Texas Tech, consistently
better than A&M in football, gets a smaller cut.

■ An ESPN columnist argues that Kobe Bryant is the
best Laker ever because he's won as many titles as Magic Johnson
(five) with lesser players the last two times. But is it praise for
Kobe or an indictment of the league? Given a choice, I'd take Magic
first.

■ How impossible is 3,000 hits? Michael Young, who
just broke the Rangers' record for hits, is one of only seven
players to record 200 over at least five straight seasons. To reach
3,000, Young would need at least six more, when he'd be 39.

■ Doesn't look like Koman Couilibaly of Mali, who
disallowed U.S.'s potential game-winning goal by Maurice Edu, will
be as apologetic as Jim Joyce, who fouled up Armando Galarraga's
perfect game. But it begs the same replay question.

■ How much will Little Big 12 football coaches miss
the league title game? Not as much as Jerry Jones. Four times
(Nebraska, '96; Kansas State, '98; Texas, '01; Missouri, '07) the
outcome ruined a BCS title game bid.

■ As Josh Hamilton heats up, so does Edinson Volquez
. Hit 97 mph in his second minor league rehab start after Tommy
John surgery. Reds hope for a July return.

■ Bill Byrne may not appreciate all those riled-up
Aggies, but the SEC will sure miss their TVs.